Fourth-Place Crimson Seeks to Take Advantage of Opportunities in All-Important Contest Against Brown

The Harvard men’s hockey team travels to Brown’s Meehan Auditorium tonight in search of two valuable league points as the ECAC regular season winds down.

The Crimson (11-8-2, 8-7-1 ECAC) has a golden opportunity in Providence, R.I.: the Bears (3-13-5, 2-9-3) have netted just one victory since mid-November, a string of 17 games. Meanwhile, Harvard sits in a fourth-place tie with Dartmouth in the ECAC standings, and just six league games remain before the postseason tournament.

The Crimson split last weekend’s home contest, beating Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 3-1 but losing 2-1 to Union the following night.

“We’re disappointed with [that] loss,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91, “and I don’t think we played that poorly—we just didn’t execute.”

The Crimson has converted just two of its last 38 power play opportunities, roughly a five percent success rate.

The Brown game will be Harvard’s last of three post-exam break contests before Monday’s opening round of the Beanpot, held in the TD Banknorth Garden, against defending champion Boston University.

The oddly timed exam break and subsequent light schedule leading into the tournament has traditionally hindered the Crimson, “but I don’t think we’ll have any trouble getting motivated,” Donato said.

“It’s a tough draw, but it’s a great draw for us.”

—REBECCA A. SEESEL